A California jury has awarded $40 million to two women who accused Johnson & Johnson’s talc-based baby powder of causing their ovarian cancer.
The Los Angeles Superior Court found that the company knew for years that its talc-based products posed health risks but failed to warn consumers adequately, reports The Guardian.
The jury awarded $18 million to Monica Kent and $22 million to Deborah Schultz and her husband. Both women, residents of California, testified that they had used the baby powder after bathing for over 40 years before being diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
Kent was diagnosed in 2014, while Schultz was diagnosed in 2018. Both women underwent major surgeries and numerous rounds of chemotherapy as part of their treatment.
In response to the verdict, Erik Haas, Johnson & Johnson’s global vice president of litigation, stated that the company intends to “immediately appeal” the decision, adding that they “expect to prevail” based on previous experiences with similar cases.
The plaintiffs’ attorney, Andy Birchfield, told the jury that Johnson & Johnson had been aware since the 1960s of the potential cancer risks posed by its product.
“Absolutely they knew, they knew and they were doing everything they could to hide it, to bury the truth about the dangers,” Birchfield said during closing arguments.
Johnson & Johnson’s lawyer, Allison Brown, countered by asserting that there was no scientific evidence to support the claim that talc could migrate from the outer body to reproductive organs.
Brown further argued that the only individuals suggesting a link between the cancer diagnoses and the use of talc were the plaintiffs’ lawyers.
This case is part of a broader legal battle, with more than 67,000 plaintiffs suing Johnson & Johnson, claiming they developed cancer after using the company’s talc-based products. The company maintains that its products are safe, asbestos-free, and do not cause cancer.
In 2020, Johnson & Johnson stopped selling talc-based baby powder in the US, switching to a cornstarch-based formula.
Previously, the company had attempted to resolve these lawsuits through bankruptcy filings, though these attempts were rejected by federal courts. The cases involving Kent and Schultz are the first to go to trial since these bankruptcy proposals were dismissed.
Johnson & Johnson has faced substantial verdicts in similar trials, including a $4.69 billion award for women claiming their ovarian cancer was linked to the company’s baby powder. However, it has also won some trials and had other verdicts reduced on appeal.
The majority of the ongoing lawsuits involve ovarian cancer, with a smaller number of claims related to mesothelioma, a rare and deadly cancer.
